12.10.02 - Lucky Peterson at Faith Memorial Church - Dallas, TX - OC - Danny Fulgencio - 073-WEB

Last October, I jumped at the chance to photograph local bluesman Lucky Peterson at Faith Memorial Church for the Oak Cliff Advocate. I’m a sucker for paradox, and a portrait melding blues and faith was impossible to pass up. After all, blues often mourns poor decision-making while faith champions the moral high ground.

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In making the shot, I wanted to play with literal and figurative light and dark. So I gelled one flash blue, the other orange and set my camera’s white balance to tungsten to really make the blues pop. After dialing in my light, I asked Lucky to play for a bit while his 4-year-old godson went wild on a drum kit a few feet away. It was a haphazard jam session, to be sure.

After only a few frames we arrived at this photo.